The Last Dark: The climax of the entire Thomas Covenant Chronicles (Last Chronicles of Thomas Cove)

Covenant encounters his Dead, the spectres of his long-gone friends. They offer him advice and guidance for the struggle ahead. And they give him a gift: a strange ebony creature named Vain, an artificial being created for a hidden purpose by ur-viles, former servants of the Despiser.
    Thereafter Covenant hastens toward Revelstone to rescue his friends. When he encounters the Clave, he learns the cruelest secret of the Sunbane: it was made possible by his destruction of the Staff of Law thousands of years ago. Desperate to undo the harm which he has unwittingly caused, he risks wild magic in order to free Linden, Sunder, and Hollian, as well as a number of
Haruchai
, powerful warriors who at one time served the Lords.
    With his friends, Vain, and a small group of
Haruchai
, Covenant then sets out to locate the One Tree, the wood from which Berek originally fashioned the Staff of Law. Covenant hopes to devise a new Staff to oppose the Clave and the Sunbane.
    Traveling eastward, the companions encounter a party of Giants, seafaring beings from the homeland of the lost Giants of Seareach. One of them, Cable Seadreamer, has had a vision of a terrible threat to the Earth, and the Giants have sent out a Search to discover the danger.
    Convinced that this threat is the Sunbane, Covenant persuades the Search to help him find the One Tree; and in
The One Tree
, Covenant, Linden, Vain, and several
Haruchai
set sail aboard the Giantship Starfare’s Gem, leaving Sunder and Hollian to rally the people of the Land against the Clave.
    The quest for the One Tree takes Covenant and Linden first to the land of the
Elohim
, cryptic beings of pure Earthpower who appear to understand and perhaps control the destiny of the Earth. The
Elohim
agree to reveal the location of the One Tree; but first they paralyze Covenant’s mind, purportedly to protect the Earth from his growing power. Led now by Linden, the Search sails for the Isle of the One Tree.
    Unexpectedly, however, they are joined by Findail, an
Elohim
who has been Appointed to guard against the consequences of the quest’s actions.
    Linden is unable to free Covenant’s mind without possessing him, which she fears to do, knowing that she may unleash his power. When she and her companions are imprisoned in
Bhrathairealm
, however, she takes the risk of entering Covenant, much to Findail’s dismay. Covenant then fights and masters a Sandgorgon, a fierce monster of the Great Desert. The creature’s rampage through
Bhrathairealm
allows Covenant, Linden, and their companions to escape.
    At last, Starfare’s Gem reaches the Isle of the One Tree, where one of the
Haruchai
, Brinn, becomes the Tree’s Guardian. But when the companions approach their goal, they learn that they have been misled by the Despiser. Covenant’s attempt to obtain wood for a new Staff of Law begins to rouse the Worm of the World’s End. Once awakened, the Worm will accomplish Lord Foul’s release from Time.
    At the cost of his life, Seadreamer makes Linden aware of the true danger. She then forestalls Covenant. Nevertheless the Worm’s restlessness forces the Search to flee as the Isle sinks into the sea, taking the One Tree beyond reach.
    Defeated, the Search returns to the Land in
White Gold Wielder
. Covenant now believes that he must confront the Clave directly, quench the Banefire, and then battle the Despiser; and Linden is determined to aid him, in part because she loves him, and in part because she fears his unchecked wild magic.
    Rejoined by Sunder, Hollian, and several
Haruchai
, Covenant, Linden, and a few Giants eventually reach Revelstone, where they challenge the Clave. After a fierce struggle, the companions corner the Raver commanding the Clave. There Seadreamer’s brother, Grimmand Honninscrave—with the help of a Sandgorgon—sacrifices his life in order to “rend” the Raver. As a result, the Sandgorgon gains scraps of the Raver’s sentience. Then Covenant flings himself into the Banefire, using its dark theurgy to transform the venom in his veins. When he is done, the Sunbane remains, but its evil no longer grows.
    Afterward, Covenant and Linden, Sunder and Hollian, Vain and Findail, and two Giants turn toward Mount Thunder, where the Despiser now resides. Along the way, Hollian dies. But in Andelain, Caer-Caveral expends his own life to resurrect her by violating the Law of Life.
    Gradually Linden realizes that Covenant does not mean to fight Lord Foul. That contest, Covenant